


Lost in My Mind

by betterTomorrows



Series: EllieDina Week March2021 [1]
Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, ELLIEDINA WEEK, F/F, Sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:40:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29789304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betterTomorrows/pseuds/betterTomorrows
Summary: An accident delays Ellie and Dina's plans to go to CalTech together. Ellie gets emotional, but Dina is always there for her.----EllieDina Week: Day 1 - Prompt: Ache
Relationships: Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Series: EllieDina Week March2021 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2189691
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	Lost in My Mind

**Author's Note:**

> My submission for Day 1 of EllieDina Week, started by @elliedina-week on tumblr.  
> I finally figured out my password for tumblr and made a side blog for writing so I will also be posting there. find me @bettertomorrows-ao3
> 
> WARNING: it's short and sad because, well.... ACHE.  
> This is an idea I've had for a longer one-shot, but only the first part fit the theme so here we go. If it feels unfinished, then that's why.

Ellie stiffly sat on the edge of Dina’s bed, quietly watching as her girlfriend packed the last piece of clothing into her already full suitcase. She wants to make a joke about how empty her room looks, the walls are still covered in polaroid pictures, but her closet is unusually bare and the framed pictures on her nightstand are now missing, and probably tucked deeply in one of her three suitcases. She wants to mention how Dina probably won’t be needing the sweater she’s forcing into the bag; it doesn’t get _that_ cold in Southern California after all. She wants to say anything that could lighten up the mood, maybe even something as stupid as a fart joke, but the words get caught in her throat.

Dina has her back turned to Ellie, completely unaware of the tears forming in her eyes. She wants to wipe them away before her girlfriend sees them. She wants to be strong for Dina—she has to, she promised she would be— but all of it suddenly becomes too real, and too fast.

It’s not true though. She’s had months to prepare for this specific moment. Dina got her acceptance letter to CalTech early into their senior year, with a scholarship so shiny she couldn’t have possibly even thought to reject the offer. They had both planned to go together. Dina studying Electrical Engineering, while she would go study Planetary Astronomy.

Their plans were put on hold when a speeding car t-boned Ellie’s the night of their anniversary, and she was hospitalized for weeks, spending the remainder of their senior year at a rehab center for physical therapy. Having missed too many school days, and not having the time to do the course work during her recovery, the school counselor suggested to Joel for Ellie to redo her last year. She fought Joel on this for days, she insisted that she could stay up later to finish her homework, and maybe she could catch up with everyone. It wouldn’t be a big deal.

Knowing how stubborn his daughter was, Joel relented and let her try out her plan for a bit. Just to see if she could really balance rehab and schoolwork all at once. Thinking about it now, Ellie realises that Joel pulled some reverse psychology on her. He must have known that she wouldn’t last long. In fact, her attempts were feeble, at best. She hadn’t considered how drowsy her medication would make her feel, and she had to take them daily, which didn’t help her cause.

Despite all of that, Ellie still tried, and she was almost successful in catching up to her classes, until her physical therapy took a downturn. She had secretly stopped taking her nightly medication in order to stay up during the night to study. By the time her PT appointment came around during the day, Ellie was much too exhausted to even do the simplest exercises her trainer planned for her.

In the end, Dina was the one to convince her to stop straining herself. It was the look in her girlfriend’s eyes, filled with frantic worry, that halted Ellie. She sat on a chair in her room at the rehab center listening to Dina’s tirade about how she had to stop working herself to the bone. Dina promised her that CalTech will always be there, it could wait, and more importantly _she_ would wait. First, she had to get better, and that couldn’t happen if Ellie continued to juggle everything. Of course, Ellie listened.

If there was anyone in the world that could convince her to do anything, it would be her best friend, her girlfriend. Dina would always be the one who could get Ellie out of whatever hole she would dig herself into.

Except there was something about watching Dina pack her life in suitcases with the intention to move away from Ellie. She knows that was not really the intent. They would only be separated for a year. Nothing between them would change, save for the fact that they would be hundreds of miles apart from one another.

Ellie doesn’t notice Dina turn around. She only realizes it when Dina wipes the tears from her eyes and engulfs her in a hug.

“Hey, none of that,” Dina whispers, “we’re going to be okay. I promise.”

Ellie nods, but doesn’t find the strength to respond. So, they sit like that for a while, with Dina’s arms around her sobbing body and Ellie holds on to Dina as if she were about to disappear at any moment.

Ellie wants to believe her. She wants to hang on to every comforting word that comes out of Dina’s mouth, but none of them make her feel better.

If they’re going to be okay, then why does everything hurt so much?

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Let me know if you like it. Stay safe!
> 
> ps. my main fic has not been abandoned.


End file.
